with the pentagon and other departments already in crisis mode, the white house oannounced thursday the president phoned mitch mcconnell and house speaker john boehner but deliberately avoided saying more. was it simply to restate his position or to reach out to them in the interests of compromise? >> the president spoke with senator mcconnell and the speaker. i have no content to read out to you of those conversations. >> reporter: the two republican leaders pointed out this was the first time the president has reached out to them on the topic of the automatic cuts in two months since the end of 2012. the sequester is set to kick in a week from today will mean $1.2 trillion in across the board cuts. thursday, mr. obama argued to friendly radio hosts that republicans are standing in his way for the wrong reasons. >> their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts and that's the thing that binds their party together at this point." >> reporter: but republicans say the president is